The Grid is North Carolina’s Classic Gaming Shrine

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Video game stores used to be a thing of beauty. Maybe 15 or 20 years ago, specialty shops selling consoles and games were still a relatively new thing, and the standalone, non-chain stores were often packed to the gills of domestic and import games and hardware, living museums to the then-current round of consoles (this would have been around the PSOne era). With their hyper-organized floor plans and same-y collections, modern game stores have thoroughly Wal-Mart’d up the hobby, restricting off-beat and odd game purchases to eBay or sites like PlayAsia.

Enter The Grid, a concept store which popped up in a Charlotte, North Carolina shopping center. Opened by Goodwill, the shop looks like what would happen if you stumbled back into the era of CRT TVs and ubiquitous copies of Battle Arena Toshinden.

Imgur user ltra1n collected some great pics from The Grid, which houses what appears to be a little something from every generation of consoles (and even a couple of arcade cabinets). Plus, I’m going to go ahead and assume that the person who named the shop had a lot of love for old-school games/TRON.

There are quite a few 16-bit era games in their original boxes along with peripherals in their original packaging. Also: Sega Saturn and original PSOne games remain, I believe, the gold standard of way too big boxes in console gaming.

According to the poster, 90% of the profits from game sales go to charity, which makes the venture even more appealing.

So Goodwill, what would it take to get The Grid locations opened up in other cities? Because I’m guessing some L.A. locals might love to donate/buy some classic games.

This place is not the place an article on Unique Charlotte Game Stores should have been written about… There are three Other Retro Game/Toy Stores here in Charlotte all ran by local people that are amazing. Look up Save Point Video Games, which fixes up old arcade cabs, has an amazing selection, and holds weekly gaming tournaments… there’s also Retro Reboot, or Super Video Game World, both also solid places. The Grid is over priced, they prey on ignorance, and pay nothing to people who trade stuff in.

I’ve shopped here, totally reasonable prices! Laptops for half of retail. Not just a game store. Raspberry PI. Computers, printers, accessories! Plus the profits go to charity. Someone’s hating!! You don’t have to put down others to raise yourself up.